Services are provided in various ways. For example, services are provided in-house by a service provider or by a company itself, or are outsourced to a requesting customer. With the latter, a customer, such as a company, requests that a particular service be provided to the company. For instance, the company may request consulting services. With such a request, the company specifies the number of desired hours of labor and/or other requirements.
In order to purchase the number of hours of labor and/or other requirements, one or more service elements representing the requirements are created by the service provider and purchased by the company. This defines for the company what is being provided and at what cost.
Although service elements are used today in the providing of services, there still exists a need for a capability to enhance the definition of service elements. Further, there exists a need for a capability that enables service elements to be represented in a manner that facilitates management of the service elements. A further need exists for a capability that facilitates management of service elements. A yet further need exists for a capability that facilitates the hosting of software packages.